Santa Clara County Biographies
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
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GEORGE LAUCK
George Lauck, proprietor of the Santa Clara Brewery, at Santa Clara,
was born in Baden, Germany, June 17, 1838, where he was reared as a farmer until
his sixteenth year, when he came to America. On his arrival here he went to New
Jersey, and until 1858 he worked as a farm hand near Newark. He then went to
Galena, Illinois, where he learned brewing, at which he worked until the
breaking out of the Rebellion in 1816, when he enlisted as a private in Company
F, Twelfth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and served during the whole
war, his regiment being among the first out and last to return. He was promoted
from its ranks to the position of Corporal, then as Sergeant, and during the
last two years of the war was Orderly Sergeant of his company. He, with his
company and regiment, participated in the Battle of Corinth, siege of Atlanta,
and in all the engagements in General Sherman�s celebrated march through Georgia
from Atlanta to the sea. His regiment, called the �Bandbox,� was reputed for
bravery and endurance, and as an officer, Sergeant Lauck was highly esteemed by
his comrades. The writer of this sketch was informed by a comrade of Sergeant
Lauck�s that after the battle of Allatoona, Georgia, he was ordered by the
company commander to call the roll; but, as he looked along the line and saw the
vacant places of the many comrades who had fallen, his heart failed him, and,
with a tear coursing down his battle-smoke-begrimed face, he reported to the
officer, �All present or accounted for,� in faltering words, without calling the
roll as ordered. He was discharged with his regiment at Springfield, Illinois,
in the latter part of July, 1865. He then returned to Galena and resumed work
as a brewer at the brewery, which he left when he enlisted in the Union army.
There he worked until 1868, when he came to California. He first located at San
Francisco, where he worked in the National Brewery for five years, when, in
1873, he went to Castroville, Monterey County, California. There he purchased a
brewery, and carried on brewing until 1870, when he closed it and came to Santa
Clara, and purchased the Santa Clara Brewery, where he has carried on that
business since. Mr. Lauck has proved himself a successful business man, and
although he left his parents and native land a mere lad, and without money, to
begin life for himself in a strange land, he saved his earnings, which have
proved a stepping-stone to his business success and present prosperity.
November 16, 1865, he was married, at Galena, Illinois, to
Magdellena Eberhard, who died at Santa Clara, California, April 11, 1884. To
them were born seven children: Julia C., Emma S., wife of Samuel Oberdeener, of
Santa Clara, Mary Magdellena, George A., Frank, Clara, and Louisa. All his
children, excepting his married daughter, are still with him.
Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California,
Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company,
1888.
Pg. 282-283
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
Proofread by Betty Vickroy